shockingly Awful

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shockingly Awful

by drhomler » Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:53 pm
I took the day off from work today as I plan to next friday and the following thursday. My exam date is June 30th. I have been prepping for approx six weeks when I took my first MGMAT prep test on May 6th. Today was an eye opener for me and I am trying to stay positive.

MGMAT1-620
MGMAT2-640
MGMAT3+4-650 one of these I got a 41V
MGMAT5-690-45Q, 38V
MGMAT6-680-44Q, 38V

All seemed well. I have been steadily improving especially since I didnt study for the first two tests. I have plowed through the OG quant and verbal books and Half of OG11 with 15 days left to go until the test I felt strong and hopeful to push myself over the 700 barrier until I took my first gmatprep test this am at the mgmat center.

620-42Q, 33V

Initial reaction during the test: The quant was easier than mgmat there were only 2 questions I was having trouble with everything else I knew how to answer. I finished with time to spare, something that I have never had happened on an mgmat test. I did slightly panic inthe middle when I got stuck on one of the aforementioned quant questions.

Verbal-RC easier, CR on par, SC( a virtual nightmare) the SC has never been my strong suit but this was a shocker. I have been reading around from previous posts where people seem to have the same impression. I thought I had improved my SC to a respectable level. I was able to all the SC in the verbal book and I didnt miss any of the last 20. What gives?

When I reviewed my answers I made many an ignorant mistake in quant either misreading or just simple math/divison errors. But clearly I never got to the real tough stuff.

In the verbal I made a few minor errors in the CR and reading comp. One SC question I put the wrong answer in and I knew it when I was taking the test(never done that before, clicking c when I wanted D). But I missed 7 SC questions. I had most of them if not all of them down to two and picked the wrong one everytime which happened on my last mgmat test too.

I know that mgmat is trying to prep its sstudents and for the most part I think they do a good job, but I am shocked. Has anyone experienced a similiar thing. I refuse to believe that after 6 weeks of prep I have barely improved my score(I guess if you believe the original 620). I know the material so muchbetter than I did even two weeks ago, I am not comfortable with the idea that I am below 650 now. And the crazy thing is I got 9 out of the first 10 right in each section which I never did on the mgmat tests and I missed the same amount of questions.

I havent given up the ship or purchased a plot at the cemetery to roll over and die-but my confidence is shot. I am at a loss what do I do now. I will keep doing practice problems, Ihave Kap800 which is supposed to be good, but I am struggling. Would love to be able to post on the night of the 30th a uplifting note to people who are struggling that 2 weeks before the test I got a 620 on the prep test and still got a 700 but that doesnt feel likely.
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by beatthegmat » Fri Jun 15, 2007 6:22 pm
Don't take your latest score too seriously--it's just one datapoint, and it's natural to have fluctuations in score during your prep.

Maintaining confidence is critical for achieving a great score on your GMAT--trust your prep strategy and believe that you've been making progress in your prep (which you have)--you have every right to BE confident.
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by drhomler » Sat Jun 16, 2007 9:39 am
Thanks Eric. Ive been back at it all morning so Im keeping the faith. I think I might take the free PR test online tonight. Ive read through the KAP800 SC this morning so hopefully I wil show some improvements there. Im really just looking to get 39V 47Q that should be right around 7 hundo I thought I was so close based on the mgmat tests.

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by Stacey Koprince » Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:38 pm
Agree with Eric that it's only one datapoint.

However, you should be aware of a couple of things:

1) the standard deviation of our test is about 50 points, and it's about 30 points for the official test. Given that, it's not really the case that your score dropped as much as you think it has. I know that's not exactly a comforting piece of news, but it is the reality.

2) to a certain extent, performance depends upon a measure of luck - this is part of the reason the standard deviation is so high. You happen to get a few more questions that are in your areas of strength and your score will be higher. You happen to get a few more in your areas of weakness and your score will be lower. Again, not comforting b/c you can't do anything about it... but this is how things are.

Having said that, I am encouraged by your analysis of your results after the test - that is what people really need to do to improve and too few people do much analysis after the fact. I often spend 2-4 times as much time going over a question as I spent doing it in the first place (so if I took 2 minutes to do it, I will go over it for 4-8 minutes) - even if I got it right! - and extract every last possible lesson I can before moving on to another question
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